Essay Writing Format For Bank Examination

Most of the major banking recruitment exams such as IBPS PO 2017, SBI PO 2017, Dena Bank PO 2017, BOB Manipal PO consist of a English Descriptive Writing Section in their recruitment process.

For most of these exams, the descriptive section is qualifying in nature. Due to the nature of this test, it has been the reason for a lot of queries. In this blog post, we would be answering some of these queries of our users. We would be looking at the evaluation criteria of essays and letters. The post will also consist of a sample essay and letter for your reference.

Before, we discuss the evaluation criteria let’s understand the purpose of conducting this exam. This will help you put things in perspective.

Why is English Descriptive Writing, a part of bank PO recruitment process?

A bank job requires continuous interaction with customers, analyzing information and effective communication. These are the exact traits tested by the descriptive writing section.

Essay Writing: It tests you on your ability to organize and structure thoughts & ideas. It requires good writing skills and imagination.

Letter Writing: It tests your ability to put across your thoughts in a succinct manner. It also tests your ability to carry out effective written communication within the organisation.

How are letters and essays evaluated?

Although there is no set criteria according to which the descriptive section paper is evaluated, there are some common things that are examined by the evaluator. For most banking exams, the descriptive section is evaluated manually.

Content: The examiner would see whether aspects of the topic have been addressed in the essay and if provided details, examples and explanations are appropriately supporting the candidate’s point of view.

Formal Requirement: As the paper is descriptive in nature there are certain requirements that must be fulfilled by the answers. For letters, the format must be strictly adhered to. Although extra marks might not be awarded for the format/ structure, an absence of it might cause a deduction in your marks. For letter writing, stick to the prescribed formats of formal and informal letters. For essays, make sure the word limit (if any) is not exceeded. Also, make sure that the essay is in paragraph form.

Development, Structure and Coherence: How well the topic has been understood and explained is main criteria of evaluating any piece of descriptive writing. The examiner sees whether there are any examples given, what is the range of thoughts/ ideas presented and how logically they are penned down. The following might be the few things an examiner is looking for in your piece of writing:-

Does each paragraph contain just one idea or concept?

Does the evidence presented support the writer’s argument?

Does this paper have a beginning (introduction), a middle (body), and an end (conclusion)?

Grammar: This is also a very important criterion. An essay may be logically presented, it may have a variety of ideas, but if the grammar is bad, it makes the entire essay ‘not so good’. Examiners don’t expect complex sentences. Just make sure you create simple and correct sentence structures and convey your thoughts effectively.

Does this paper have proper punctuation?

Does the author provide full and complete sentences?

Does this paper have consistent verb tense, voice, and third-person usage? (essays are normally written in third person)

Vocabulary & Spelling: Again we would like to clarify that a test taker is not expected to use “high – fi” English words. As long as you have the right word for an idea, that’s good. A simple example of this would be:

If you want to say “very good”, say “excellent”.

Also, avoid spelling mistakes as they point to a careless attitude.

Here, we would like to mention one important thing: Time Management. Make sure you divide your time as per the weightage of the question. Since, an essay has higher marks, allot more time to it.

A Good (Sample) Essay : With Analysis

Technology has highly evolved over time. In fact, nowadays almost everybody has some sort of machine at hand, be it computers, cars, or even washing machines. But although machinery was devised to benefit mankind, it has also brought along many flaws to match. [ The topics is introduced and developed in this paragraph. The write talks about both, the good and the bad aspects. This not only indicates knowledge of the topic but will also help him present a “range of ideas” in the subsequent paragraphs. ]

Firstly, when it comes to technological equipment such as computers, disruption most often arises between the person using the computer, and the household he or she is surrounded by, or living with. For example, many old family traditions such as eating meals with your relatives at the dining table seldom take place now that one of the family members might be too busy working on his Mac. laptop. Thus, family values and morals have changed in order to adapt to this technological age.

Secondly, having many kinds of machinery at hand is not only destroying family traditions, but is also very harmful to our environment. Many people are careless about allowing their car engines to run haphazardly, or leaving their laptops on for long periods of time, however they do not seem aware of the fact that all this energy and electricity consumption is dangerous to not only our local environment, but to the world as a whole. Additionally, it is the over-usage of machinery, big or small that is bringing our society ever closer to Global Warming, and we must stop.

As mentioned in the introduction, technological equipment was never programmed to damage nature per se, but to help people all around the globe. Now that nuclear families aren’t as closely intact compared to the 1950s or 1990s, technology has given us an alternative method to keep in touch with our relatives thanks to computer applications such as Skype, or even cell phone applications such as VIBER or WhatsApp. Machinery has most definitely done wonders in our lives, and we as people should be grateful to easily possess cars, and/or phones when poorer countries do not even have the chance to.

[ In the above three paragraphs, the usage of pointers, such as ‘firstly’ and ‘secondly’ shows the logical cohesiveness of the essay. The writer has developed each supporting point richly by using examples and connected the ideas together so that the essay reads smoothly. ]

However, with all the advantages machinery has brought to us all, I personally believe that possessing too many cars or phones, or even consuming too much of their energy and battery, is beginning to get out of hand and needs to be controlled.

[ Note that the writer has also, made a conclusion. This is a very important part of an essay. The entire essay shows a proficiency with grammatical structures and vocabulary. ]

A Formal (Sample) Letter

#34, GMR Layout

3rd Cross, Sanjaynagar

Bangalore- 560094

January 19, 2016

Complete name, title and address of the recipient

Use “Mr.” for a male recipient. If you do not know how a female recipient prefers to be addressed, it is best to use “Ms.”

Mr. Mahesh Kumar

996, PMP Layout

Chandigarh

Dear Mr. Kumar/Dear Sir/Dear

Start with an introduction, as in why you are writing this letter. In the next paragraph, provide the necessary details. Be concise and avoid redundancy. Also, use double spacing in between two paragraphs. Restrict yourself to 2-3 paragraphs.

Use “Sincerely, ” for closing. Leave four blank spaces and type your full name. The blank space should be used for your signature

Sincerely,

(Your signature)

Atul Sharma

If you have enclosed some documents with the letter (for ex, CV, Certificates etc), leave two spaces below your name and write Enclosure/Enclosures. If you have enclosed more than one document, mention the number in brackets. For example, if you have enclosed three documents, write- Enclosures (3)

Oliveboard All India Test Series

Dear Aspirants,

Yesterday Syndicate Bank released a notice to extend its recruitment's online exam date to 25th February 2018. Candidates now have few more days to complete their preparation to crack the examination and get selected for the next phase. The online exam of Syndicate Bank PGDBF Recruitment also have a Descriptive Test of English Writing and many brilliant aspirants fear this test, as they struggle with writing skills. To help you in qualifying the Descriptive Test, in this article we'll discuss all important tips that can help you write effectively in the exam.

As per the official notification of Syndicate Bank PGDBF Recruitment, the Descriptive test is qualifying in nature however, a candidate, must secure minimum marks (50% for general & 45% for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) in descriptive test to qualify for next process viz Interview and Group discussion.

What can be the key to effective writing to score in Descriptive Test ?

Reading-The more you'll read the more it will become easier for you to express opinions, ideas, and facts in a proper manner. Reading is essential to effective writing.

Grammar, Spellings, and Punctuation-Take them seriously!! There will be a deduction of marks in case you trip on these three.

Brush up your knowledge of Current Affairs- There is a high possibility that you'll face a question from one of the trending topics in news, so always stay updated.

You'll have to practice Letter Writing and Essay Writing for Descriptive Test of Syndicate Bank PO PGDBF Online Exam. Try to practice writing a Letter and an essay daily, to improve your writing skills. When you are comfortable with writing on paper, then practice by typing on your personal computer. This much needed and small step will help you prepare with perfection for the exam. In recent competitive exams, we’ve seen letter to the editor and informal letters were the hot topics asked in the descriptive paper.While writing a letter one should keep in mind to write letters that get your message across without the reader calling you for clarification. Letters shouldn't be verbose and usually, in competitive exams, there is a prescribed word limit. Essay Writing can be challenging given the scarce word limit of 150 words in some competitive exams. Yes!! you must practice to write essays in 150 words and 250 words.

You can refer to the following sample of Letter and Essay Writing and get an idea of the format:

Q. Write a letter to the SHO of your area complaining against the violation of traffic rules by the people. (WORD LIMIT- 150)

17-B, Sadar, Nagpur

24th August 2017

The SHO, Sadar, Nagpur, Maharashtra

Sir,

I wish to draw your kind attention towards the increasing incidents of road accidents in our area. The major cause of such incidents is the violation of traffic rules and absence of traffic police on signals. People are in a habit of breaking laws. Everybody on the road seems to be in a hurry. It is very common that many people talk over mobile while drive and also jump red lights. Over speeding is another cause of road accidents. All these have contributed to the increase in the road accidents. Pedestrians do not feel safe while moving on the road. It is, requested to take immediate necessary action to check the incidence of road accidents. Traffic police may be deployed on every street to punish those who dare to break the traffic rules.

"Blue Whale Challenge" that was initially a sensationalized hoax, is now believed to have had instances of mimetic self-harming and mimicking groups, leaving immature teenagers at risk of cyberbullying and online shaming. Blue Whale is explained as being based on the relationship between participants (or challengers) and administrators. The administrators command a series of missions that players must accomplish, usually one per day, some of which involve self-mutilation.

The Blue Whale challenge is an online game that pushes teens to commit suicide. Over the past month, a dozen teen deaths have been associated with the game in India and many more across the world. There is need to move discourse from the cause, to address the fundamental mental health vulnerabilities that are getting these kids manipulated by an administrator who slowly works on stimulating dormant suicide ideation in someone with depression.

We need a discourse on depression but to do that, there is a necessity to de-hyphenate anxiety from psychosis. We can’t wait for authorities or government to provide solutions, each of us has to do our part to promote better mental well-being in whatever approach possible.

Points To Remember

Keep the word limit in mind: You can use any short and imaginary address while writing a letter, so you won't run out of words in the main body of the letter. For Essay writing do not try to take too many points as you'll be on a tight word limit of 150 or 250 words.

Use simple language: There is no need to use heavy vocabulary, the main agenda of descriptive test is to deliver the message appropriately to the reader.

Avoid grammatical and spelling errors.

Read newspapers and try to write on a topic daily with a confined word limit to improve your writing skills.

In our effort to provide you all with the latest topics with solved examples and practice exercise set for descriptive writing we bring you A Guide to Descriptive Writing eBook that will prepare you to tackle the questions asked in Descriptive Paper of Syndicate Bank PO Examination with poise. You can get the Descriptive Writing ebook and Descriptive English Video Tutorial from store.adda247.